Date

Author

Metadata

Abstract

In the past few years, the issue of global warming has become increasingly visible.
Record high as well as record low temperatures are being broken worldwide. Snow
is melting in the poles and less sunrays are being reflected causing more temperature
to be absorbed by Earth. One of the main reasons of global warming is burning the
fossil fuels for producing electrical energy. One of the household items that consumes
a lot of electricity is the air conditioner. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that every airconditioned
house produces two tons of carbon dioxide every year. It is believed that if
better insulation systems are used in our houses, especially in the GCC area, the use of air
conditioners can be optimized to consume less electricity. The main aim of this project
is to come up with an environmentally friendly building insulation system that reduces
the electrical consumption used in air conditioners in our houses. PTF was prepared and
used as a natural free resource that is available locally in the GCC. Several mixes with
different PTF ratios have been prepared and tested for thermal insulation and structural
integrity. The results indicate a significant improvement in the R value of concrete. This
additive also affected the compressive strength of concrete. It was found that replacing
of fine aggregate with less than 1% of PTF will increase the R value of concrete without
affecting the strength capacity significantly.